


stand by your belief

by waning_croissant



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Chronic Pain, Cuddling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, M/M, Scott and Stiles taking care of each other, mention of physical disability, season 3b, self-harm (see notes for details)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:40:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waning_croissant/pseuds/waning_croissant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It shouldn’t have surprised Scott that, before he’d even let himself think about it, Stiles had already noticed the problem and was on his way to a solution. It was how their relationship always worked, but every so often it still brought him up short just how attuned to each other they could be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stand by your belief

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new to this -- please let me know if there's anything I haven't tagged properly. Additional info regarding my tags in the end notes, but the self harm tag references actions seen in canon.
> 
> This is intended as Scott/Stiles, but could also be read as (cuddly) gen.
> 
> I'm such a slow writer that this doesn't even seem to be relevant anymore! Fits into canon somewhere post-episode 3x13, with the assumption that their 3x13 nemeton-induced issues would not be solved in 3x14.

It shouldn’t have surprised Scott that, before he’d even let himself think about it, Stiles had already noticed the problem and was on his way to a solution. It was how their relationship always worked, but every so often it still brought him up short just how attuned to each other they could be.

This time they were in the middle of studying. Stiles had miraculously managed to stop bitching about how much longer audio books took, and Scott was just about finished with his trig homework when Stiles suddenly reached over and curled long fingers around Scott’s hand where it was clenched and shaking, working to hold a pen reasonably steady. Scott looked up from the page to see Stiles’ face creased with concern.

“Chronic pain,” Stiles said, seemingly out of the blue.

“Sorry, were you – did I totally zone out?” It wouldn’t be the first time Scott had managed to tune out Stiles’ background noise and missed it when his monologuing shifted back into a conversation.

“No, just. I’ve been thinking about it.” Stiles tightened his grip around Scott’s hand for a moment before he let go completely. “Your hands have been hurting lately, right? I haven’t seen her in years, but my aunt found out she had arthritis when she was pretty young. You keep reminding me of her lately, before she got diagnosed.”

That was a fair comparison, Scott realized. It had started as an occasional stiffness in his hands, but was now a creeping pain that he’d tried not to let himself think about. Not with everything else that was going on. “Yeah, but… arthritis? You remember the part where I’m a werewolf, right?”

Stiles glared at him, waving his hands around like he could physically bat Scott’s words out of the air. “Yes, thank you. I’m not sure what to call it, okay? I can’t exactly research a better term at the moment. But I’m right, aren’t I? Even though you’re not injured, you’re in pain. Which shouldn’t be possible for someone with supernatural healing powers.”

“That’s exactly why there’s no point bringing it up,” Scott said, unable to keep the resentment out of his voice.

Stiles’ eyes went wide with disbelief. “How the hell does that make sense? Actually, don’t even bother answering that. Just listen to me for a minute. Pain makes you human, right? How often have you been literally gouging holes in your own hands in order to hold it back?”

Scott shifted his gaze down to said hands, unwilling to admit just how little control he’d felt in the past week. He looked back up just in time for Stiles to cuff him lightly on the head. “Asshole! You can’t just ignore shit like this, dude. If pain is becoming your anchor, it’ll only get worse. You can’t keep holding onto it.”

And of course, Scott couldn’t hold back the snarl caught in his throat at that. “You think I want to keep doing this?” He could feel his frustration already mounting; these days it seemed like it was always waiting just under the surface. Flickering red in his vision and prickling at the backs of his hands.

“I think you’re so afraid of hurting someone else that you’d rather just hurt yourself. But you need to believe that you won’t hurt anyone, Scott.” Stiles’ hands were wrapping around Scott’s again, despite the claws that he couldn’t hold back, the coarse hair that was probably scratching against Stiles’ palms.

“I know you won’t hurt me, okay? I knew it when you couldn’t stop the shift at school last week. If you don’t want to listen to me, listen to your mom. Or Deaton. It’s all about belief, right? So just… let yourself believe that you would never hurt anyone.”

Scott shook his head, but the motion twisted into something more creature than human, bones cracking. How could he believe in his humanity when it was getting harder and harder to even form words? He was growling low in his throat, words garbled when he tried to tell Stiles to let him go and get the hell out, tried to tell Stiles to just let him do what worked.

But Stiles was still holding onto his hands, grip tight enough that it would probably hurt if he were human… tight enough that there was no way Scott could break free without hurting Stiles in the process.

Suddenly that awareness broke through the overwhelming dread that always accompanied the change these days. Stiles was obviously not going to let go, was too stubborn, but there was no way Scott was going to hurt him. Stiles was still talking, trying to remind Scott of his mom’s words, their certainty that he could do this. 

He tuned it out. The rabbit quick patter of Stiles’ heartbeat, the urgency in his voice, the surprising strength of his grip. He let it all fade into the background – tried instead to focus back in on the bright clarity of that one thought, reaching for it before it slipped away again. He wasn’t going to hurt Stiles. Of course he wasn’t. And if Stiles wasn’t going to listen to reason (no big surprise), then Scott would just have to find his control.

It didn’t seem like it could possibly be that easy, but he let it all out in a long breath and started to feel the shift receding, looked up from their hands as his vision cleared to see Stiles’ features smoothing out into relief.

His laughter was a bit strained but still genuine when Stiles gave him a smug grin and said, “What’d I tell you, huh? Hey! Don’t you roll your eyes at me, I was totally right.”

“Technically you just repeated what Deaton and my mom already told me. You’re just the only one annoying enough to make me wolf out with a pep talk.”

Just as he expected, Stiles clutched his hands to his heart and fell back onto the bed in mock injury. He laughed, could breathe a bit easier at the familiarity, and let himself flop back onto the bed beside him.

“Seriously, thanks man.” He felt the mattress shift with Stiles’ shrug rather than seeing it. Kept his eyes on the ceiling for a moment as he considered how to make Stiles listen to what he wanted to say.

“Maybe you should think about taking the same advice.”

Just like that, all of the easy relief and affection was gone when Stiles laughed this time, a rough, bitten-off sound. “I already know I’m not going to hurt you, Scott. Werewolf versus human. The bat’s mainly for show in that match-up, dude – pretty ineffective, actually.”

And maybe there was a time where Scott wouldn’t have been able to read between those lines, or even a time when he would have let just let it go. But Stiles also used to seem a little more convincing in his half-truths and avoidance tactics, a little less bitter.

“Stiles, would you – you’re not ineffective. It doesn’t matter if you can take on a werewolf in a fistfight. As you just proved, seriously just a minute ago, it doesn’t even really matter if you can read. You still managed to help me.”

Stiles squirmed awkwardly besides him, a full body version of shaking his head, and Scott pressed on, forcing his voice to remain steady and calm. “Come on. After all the ranting you’ve done about the power of belief, you’d better believe me when I say that. You’re always helping me.”

He waited, keeping his breaths even as he let Stiles take his time with breaking the tense silence.

“I wanted to look up, like, stretches. Exercises.”

Scott sighed, shook his head at the apparently dodge and tried to work out what conversation Stiles had decided to switch over to. “Stretches?”

“For people with arthritis, like I said before. I thought it might help you let go, like when Allison stitched you up after Derek…” He trailed off, didn’t need or particularly want to finish the thought. “My aunt swears by acupuncture, but ugh. I don’t even want to imagine. Not so sure how that’d go with werewolf healing, anyway.”

Stiles was still restlessly moving: awkward, nervous energy that dipped the mattress and curled Scott further into his space. He went with the motion, took Stiles’ hand again and then tugged him over to sprawl out on top of Scott.

Stiles went stock still for a long moment, entire body tensed against Scott’s.

“Exercises, sure. We can look into it tomorrow, yeah?”

Scott felt the breath Stiles was holding finally let out in a warm puff of air against his throat, couldn’t stop his shiver as Stiles slowly relaxed into him.

“Tomorrow, sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> Scott is continuing to use pain to control the shift. He has been regularly digging his claws into his palms in order to maintain control, and additionally psychologically holding onto the pain as an anchor. Stiles notices his friend is in pain and uses arthritis as a sort of comparison/reference point in trying to help him. I do not have arthritis and if there is something here that I should correct, I will do my best! Please do not hesitate to let me know.


End file.
